The biggest wave of protests in the gaming world in recent days has been between Helldivers 2 players on PC and PlayStation owner Sony. The company required PC players to create a PSN account in order to play the game. Gamers have revolted against this requirement.
Helldivers 2 players declare a major victory against Sony
This past weekend the Helldivers 2 community was thrown into chaos by Sony’s announcement that PC gamers would need to link their games to a PSN account. What at first glance doesn’t seem so bad has turned into a major problem for many PC gamers living in countries where Sony does not yet support the PlayStation Network.
This has turned into a disaster for players who bought the game and live in countries where Sony doesn’t support it. Even if you had the game, you couldn’t play it anymore. What’s more, the CEO of Arrowhead Studios, the producer of Helldivers 2, admitted that they knew this requirement was coming and decided to release the game in these countries.
The Helldivers 2 community literally protested PlayStation and Sony online. In solidarity, players began returning Helldivers 2, changing their reviews from ‘mostly positive’ to ‘mostly positive’ on the Steam page.
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The impact was swift and devastating for the game. In one day it received over 84,000 negative reviews on Steam, and on Sunday the game’s rating was “Extremely Negative”.
After several days of review bombardment affecting Helldivers 2, Sony backed down from its plan, which was set to go into effect today. The company announced that PC gamers will no longer be required to link a PSN account. Sony said it will continue discussions on finding ways to properly moderate the game on PC.
This is a huge victory for Helldivers 2 and the gaming community in general. Big studios rarely back down from plans that their communities might be happy with, but Sony did the right thing here by listening to the community.
